Sharp increase in the share of renewable energy

01/07/2015 15:00

According to figures released by Statistics Netherlands, renewable energy constituted 5.6 percent of total Dutch energy consumption in 2014. This is substantially more than the 4.8 percent of 2013 and the sharpest increase in recent years. The Dutch target is 14 percent renewable energy in 2020.

Share of renewable energy up due to decrease in total consumption

Some 0.5 percent point of the remarkable 0.8 percent point increase of 2014 on 2013 is due to a decrease in total final energy consumption and the rest to an increase in renewable energy consumption. Consumption was lower because less natural gas was consumed due to the warm weather in 2014. The sales of motor fuels also fell sharply.

Renewable energy, use by application

More renewable heat

Renewable energy is used for heating, electricity and transport. In 2014 the use of renewable energy for heating and transport increased, while the use for electricity remained constant. About half of the use of renewable energy was destined for heating, 40 percent for electricity and over 10 percent for transport.

Increase of biomass in heat boilers in production plants

The consumption of renewable heat increased by about 10 percent in 2014 to 54 petajoules. The largest increase was produced by wood boilers for heating incompanies, in part because this technology is now eligible for subsidies.

Renewable heat consumption

Other technologies also stimulated the consumption of renewable heat. Last year the growth was generated by the use of heat from waste incineration plants, geothermal heat, soil energy and biogas. The dominant technology for using renewable heat remains biomass among households, mainly involving woodstoves.

Revision of the renewable energy statistics

In 2014 Statistics Netherlands reported a renewable energy share of 4.5 percent for 2013. This became 4.8 percent for 2013 due to the implementation of a revision necessitated by the application of the results of new studies and methodological improvements. The revision is explained in Renewable Energy 2015.